On Board the "Rocket"

by Robert C. Adams

"If you want to have it done your way of course you can have it," answered the mate, "but it's wrong, and no intelligent man ever said differently."

The captain, during this conversation gradually worked himself into a furious passion, but there was something in Mr. Morrison's demeanor which always kept him from giving the vent to his rage, as he did with every one else, and after the conversation had been continued a while longer in a similar strain to the above, he quietly turned away and walked towards the cabin, but as he passed me he muttered in an audible tone, "I've never been insulted before in my life, as I have been by that man."

He worked off some of his spleen that evening by exercising the boys with the watch-tackle, and giving them a bountiful allowance of his favorite prescription, "rope yarn tea."

But he did not get back into his pleasant mood very soon, and he snarled at and picked on the officers and made them ugly, and they relieved their wrath by growling at the crew, and the men in their turn got cross, and pretty soon all hands and the cook were in hot water. There was a great deal of work going on, and if any of Mr. Morrison's men blundered they were very apt to get a rope's-ending, and if Mr. Howard's men were at fault, and sometimes when they were not, they had to dodge their heads for a belaying pin or stick of wood.

Sailors, if they ever chew tobacco, always use it when steering, and some can do without it at all other times, but must have a "chew" at the wheel. One of Capt. Streeter's rules was that every man who used tobacco should clean out the spittoon, when he went away from the wheel. One forenoon the helmsman said to me: "The man that I relieved didn't clean out the spit-box, sir." He called attention to it from fear of being taken to task for it himself. I asked who it was, and was told it was Jake. I was about to call him out on deck to do the job, when the captain who was standing near and heard what had been said, called to me and said: "Let Mr. Howard regulate his own watch. Give him a call and tell him about it."

The second mate had just gone to sleep, having had eight hours on deck the previous night, and when I waked him up, and gave him the captain's message, he was not in very good humor. He understood in a moment what the order meant, and stepping out on deck he saw the captain standing by the weather mizzen-rigging, and so went forward to the weather forecastle door. As he passed the galley he picked up a stick of the cook's oak fire-wood, and holding it in his hand called for Jake. Jake turned out promptly and came to the door to see what was wanted, and just as he stepped on deck, Mr. Howard charged him with the neglect. Before he had a chance to reply he aimed a blow at his head with the stick of wood. Jake warded it off with his arm and acting on the defensive was driven aft by the second mate, who aimed blow after blow at him, which the man succeeded in avoiding or throwing off. He was driven aft in this way until he reached the cabin.

A sailor in going aft on the quarter-deck is always required to take the lee side, and as Jake, rather against his will it is true, was thus transgressing rules, the captain took the opportunity to come to Mr. Howard's assistance, and drawing a belaying pin from the rail he stepped forward and said to Jake: "How dare you come aft on the weather side of my quarter-deck," finishing his remark by a gesture, which brought the belaying pin down on Jake's head with great force. Being now between two fires, he was unable to defend himself, and had to take a good pounding before he was released to perform the neglected work.

In the middle watch that night Mr. Howard was sitting on the rail leaning against the boat's davit, and he fell asleep. Jake perceived his condition, and vowing to one of the men he would push him overboard, started towards him to do it. The other man sprang after him and held him back, and in the little struggle that ensued the second mate was awakened, and sung out to them to "stop that skylarking." For some time after this Jake was punished by being ordered never to walk on deck, but always to move at a run; and it became a rather ludicrous sight to witness Jake's half-gallop, as he careered around about his duties.

Great efforts were made to have the ship look well. The rigging was set up, rattled down and tarred, the ship was painted, and every morning the crew were exercised at holystoning the deck. To do this the men knelt down, sprinkled sand and water on the deck, and then rubbed the holystones to and fro to wear the deck smooth and white. The stones that were used in this ship were of the shape of a brick, only somewhat larger.

One morning this work was going on, and the second mate found one of his men had disappeared. He picked up his holystone and went in search of him. Just as he got to the forecastle door the man, a young sailor called Dan, was just coming out on deck with a plug of tobacco in his hand.